On Thursday afternoon I will have the opportunity of offering the Basic Computer Basic Basics workshop I do each semester.  As we say, “No question is too basic, no observation too un-profound…”  You get the idea.  I got to thinking, if I had to encapsulate the workshop and briefly tell someone just the few basic things that they probably do not know that would most benefit them, what would those things be?  Here is my best guess at a top 10 list: 1.  Ctrl-Z.  When you do something in a program particularly unfortunate, before doing anything else press Ctrl-Z.  That is, hold...

I ran across a fantastic free tool yesterday while reading Tom Kuhlmann’s Rapid eLearning blog.  It is called SimpleDiagrams and it IS simple and it makes them quickly and effectively.  They look like this: Or like this: Or this: In the case of this latter diagram I used an image map to create the link to watch the video, as the diagram implies. The diagrams were so simple to create, and the program so elegantly put together, that I bought the for-pay version immediately (only $19) which gave me the right to download additional image libraries (not as useful as you might think) and have...

As many of our faculty members are aware, we are migrating from Blackboard version 8, which will be in use through the fall semester, to Blackboard 9.1, which is even now live for faculty members, and will be live for students starting spring semester, 2011.  Blackboard 9.1 will run on an entirely new hardware platform set up by our IS department, while Blackboard 8 will continue on the old hardware platform.  Since these are two completely disconnected systems, it will not be possible to use the course copy tool to simply copy fall semester (or earlier) courses from the version 8 to the version 9...

We had a terrific summer Tech Camp.  Thanks to all who attended.  I feel that valuable skills were obtained and hope that they will be used in your instruction in coming semesters.  We featured a number of educational tools and products during camp, and I thought I would summarize the highlights here for those who have lost their notes. The real-time Twitter polls we used were from Polls Everywhere.  The free, educational version allows a max of 32 votes.  With a little creativity and multiple instances of a poll, even a class larger than 32 can use this fun feature.  Remember, you are not...

We will be conducting our annual summer tech camp August 3-6.  Don’t bother signing up because it is fully subscribed.  (Sorry).  It is still over 5 weeks away, but I thought I would review the tentative agenda we have pretty much agreed on so that attendees, and perhaps those planning similar events at other schools, will have some insight into what we are doing. Our inspiration for tech camp this year is the TED talks concept.  If you are not familiar with ted.com, rush to that web site without delay to be exposed to the best and brightest people in the world in the fields of technology,...